Consultancy Centres

Why the British are dumping their Timeshares

For over 50 years, large numbers of British people have been investing their earnings in to a timeshare interest. They enjoyed the security of knowing that they could go back to the same spot each year with the familiarity of a place they can class as a ‘second home’.

So what went wrong?

As the years went by and Timeshare rose in popularity, regulation wasn’t such a big issue, and Timeshare resorts found more and more ways they could extract money out of unsuspecting holiday makers. The schemes became more hair-brained and methods of selling became more aggressive with lots of little details hidden in the small print of contracts that weren’t brought to the buyers attention until they decided they wanted out – and realised they couldn’t.

It is estimated that a large number of Brits are cancelling their timeshare on a daily basis, and last year, the EU ruled that 12% of Timeshare contracts are illegal. No wonder so many people are claiming compensation and refunds when you see how Timeshare law has been breached again and again following the tightening up of regulations.

A report published by the Council of the European Union in January this year states that 38% of consumers who tried to exercise their right to withdraw within the 14 day cooling off period still experienced problems in cancelling their contracts. This high figure shows that there are shortcomings in the enforcement of this provision under the EU Directive 2008/122/EC of the European Parliament

Even the whole ‘points’ system idea is waning with the general public. Why commit yourself to years and years of financial obligations when the variety of holidays available online can compete with the best Timeshare ‘offer of a lifetime’.

It would be nice to say that Timeshare fraud and bad practices no longer exist and it’s true that the industry is a lot more careful about how they sell a contract to consumers, but we see the effects of years of mis-selling and misrepresentation, and judging on the amount of illegal contracts out there as ruled by the EU, we are going to be busy for some years to come.